


Companions at Loose Ends

by Merfilly



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms
Genre: Episode Related, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-05
Updated: 2015-01-05
Packaged: 2018-03-05 13:19:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,138
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3121664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An Auton invasion, and two former Companions? Must be London.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Companions at Loose Ends

**Author's Note:**

> Set during the 2005 series premiere story. Does not use Audio or Prose canon.

They said that soldiers always learned to spot one another, usually off the manner they faced a crisis with. It made more than a little sense to Sarah Jane Smith as she took cover in the moment, glass exploding all around while the plastic dummies came to life. She swept her eyes over the nearest objects at hand, relieved that none of them were plastic, while her mind replayed the scene leading to the violence.

She truly did wish the Autons would forget about Earth and stop coming here! Now, before she got sidetracked, what had she seen?

A young woman, leather jacket, backpack… and a bat that was arcing energy! That was the view in Sarah Jane's mind, the key moment that had assuaged some of the panic. She patted through her pockets, found the lipstick, and plotted her way out of the boutique toward the leather-jacketed warrior. She held off on actually using the lipstick; it would likely only affect one Auton before they adapted.

As it turned out, she was more than able to get to the woman with the bat. The Autons had tangled with her and left three of their numbers in pieces at her feet. The ones left from the boutique were regrouping, hands opening to reveal the deadly weapons inside, as Sarah Jane reached the fighter's side.

"Unless that thing is a laser, I think cover might be the better option now, miss!" Sarah Jane told her. Instead, the woman thrust the bat at her.

"Hold this!"

Sarah Jane did as told, eyes taking in the pins and patches on the jacket, confirming her suspicions, even as the bat crackled with energy that tingled along time-worn nerves. "Tachyons," she muttered even as the young woman dug out a canister from her back pack. "Miss, we really should move!" Sarah Jane informed her unknown ally, but then the canister was launched and the young woman had her hand on Sarah Jane's back. 

"Need to move!" she said, grinning irrepressibly at the older woman. They did so, getting an auto between them and the resulting explosion just in time. "That'll fix them!" the young woman said breathlessly as she peered around to see her handiwork.

"Yes, but unless we can find the Consciousness controlling them all, it won't do much good! Everything plastic is at its beck and call," Sarah Jane said. Her companion looked at her a long moment, then stuck her hand out.

"Ace McShane," she said.

"Sarah Jane Smith."

Ace's eyes went huge at that, and Sarah Jane wondered just what might have been said, or when this young woman had traveled with _him_. 

"What if he's already working on it?" Ace asked. "I mean, he has to be here. The Professor wouldn't just ignore this. He has to be here."

"The Professor? Is that what you called him?" Sarah Jane asked, before she stood to see if the street was clear to her own automobile. She was not going to point out how desperate Ace sounded for the Doctor; each of them had to heal in their own time.

"Umm, yeah… what are you doing?"

"The Nestene Consciousness has to be near, and K-9 can help us find where. So we need to get to him," Sarah Jane told her. "The Doctor does not attend to every single invasion Earth experiences, Miss McShane. Those of us who have known him in the past still work with UNIT to tend the ones beneath his notice."

"Ooh, the Brig. She could get us some help," Ace said but she took her bat back and took point once Sarah indicated the direction they needed to go.

"So you've met Bambera?" Sarah Jane asked, sidestepping a crawling plastic hand. Ace smashed it with the bat before answering.

"And the real Brig," she answered, grinning. "They both had sticks up their bums, but didn't mind explosions as much as the Professor."

Sarah Jane had to chuckle at that. "The Doctor was always yelling at our dear Brigadier over his need to shoot at things."

"They did a bit of yelling when Mordred was attacking, for sure," Ace said, before turning to defend as a squad of Autons spotted them. "Can you get a canister out?" she asked Sarah Jane even as they ducked down behind a flaming bin.

"I think…" Sarah Jane began, but then the three Autons collapsed under the onslaught of a laser beam on wide dispersal. "…that K-9 has this one!" She stood so her friend could find her, trying to put on a scowling face. "I told you to stay in the car, K-9."

"Danger to mistress determined. Initiated defense protocols, mistress." The robotic dog twisted his sensor ears, waiting to be forgiven for his breach of the rules.

"Oh, alright," Sarah Jane said. "This is Ace McShane, K-9. Can you help us find the Nestene Consciousness?"

"Unnecessary, mistress," K-9 told her. "Chronal and spatial displacements have been noted and tracked as being near the center of the incursion."

Sarah Jane's lips went thin, but she looked at her companion. "Well, you were right. He came this time."

Ace's face broke into a smile, one that was less triumph and far more relief. "He's back in the game then!" she said fiercely. "Which way, K-9?"

"Sensors have indicated the center of the current invasion attempt is in the vicinity of the London Eye," K-9 told her.

Sarah Jane brought her hand down on Ace's arm before the woman could run in that direction. "You've left the TARDIS recently?" she asked softly.

"The Professor had to deal with something from his homeworld," Ace said. "Told me the dark times were coming, and I ought to have a chance at living."

Sarah Jane felt a wave of empathy for this one, even as she considered the others in her network of former Companions. "Miss McShane… it can be difficult, for us and for him, to encounter him after time has passed." She pulled free a business card, one with her personal number. "If you go to find him, remember that. And keep this. I'll answer. No matter what."

"You don't want to go see him?" Ace asked slowly, uncertain of that.

"Tell me, Miss McShane, when he saw the Brigadier, our own Lethbridge-Stewart, how well did he hide the fact that our mortality weighed on him?" Sarah Jane asked, knowing the answer.

Ace's smile faded, and she looked toward the distant river and the Eye that was just out of sight. "Help me fight some of these plastic blokes then, until he drops them all?" she asked, and Sarah Jane nodded.

"Gladly! I despise Autons!"

Together, the two women and the robotic dog moved out to protect humanity, while each trying not to think on the man out there rescuing them all.


End file.
